Black Panther and Shuri in Madness At The Crystal Citadel

CHAPTER ONE

MANY YEARS AGO

BAXTER BUILDING

HOME OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR

“Uncle T’Challa why did you hunt down and imprison my parents?” asked Franklin Richards. His birthday hat was leaned to one side and a popsicle bulged his cheek.

“How do you know about that?” asked T’Challa.

“I read daddy’s thoughts by accident,” replied the twelve year old mutant. “Are you going to answer me?”

“I needed to test my Black Panther skills against the greatest team of combatants and your parents along with Ben and Johnny were the challenge that I looked for,” said T’Challa.

“So someday I can test my abilities against you too?”

“Yes if it is necessary,” replied T’Challa.

PRESENT DAY

SATURN, THE SKRULL PLANET

IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE

K’Latyr returned home after the commemoration of the day that the gods of Mars almost annihilated the Skrull civilization. When K’Latyr entered his dark apartment a webbing entangled him at the door which paralyzed him, turned him upside down and suspended him from the ceiling. He thought that it was one of the magnus-arachnids that came out of the ground to feed.

He tried to yell but someone’s hand covered his mouth.

T’Challa the Black Panther’s laser knife shined in the Skrull’s face; K’Latyr recognized the intruder and realized that he was about to be punished for the sabotage that he had done to Wakanda.

T’Challa inserted the blade into the Skrull’s neck and watched the life fade from his eyes. T’Challa felt a satisfaction that the impersonator of his deceased friend Achebe was dealt with.

The body moved on the webbing to the floor where Shuri waited for it. She used a technique from her Membeke resurrection gift to get intel from the corpse. In the process the alien’s wrinkled skin aged and his speech slurred.

Meanwhile T’Challa made a large hole in the ground with his spear of light. The hole revealed a burrowed tunnel underneath the home and something moved in it. When Shuri was finished, the body was lowered into the hole and a large ravenous beast snatched it from the fake webbing.

THE OMNIVERSE AVENGERS

OBSERVATION DECK AKA THE MIRROR

The Wakanda spy Nakia had uncovered where K’Latyr had stayed in the country from her investigation into the HYDRA sect that assisted him. T’Challa was able to get the shapeshifter’s true scent from the location that Nakia provided so when the Black Panther arrived on Saturn he was able to track down the alien.

“K’Latyr said that the magnus-arachnids were a failed experiment to make warriors called Super Skrulls. They went underground and killed the surface dwelling Skrulls for food. The Skrulls kidnapped humans and fed them to the arachnids to appease the beasts; Dschang asked them to stop the practice when he took over this dimension’s Earth. He was ignored so he sent Neith, Ra, Horus and Set after the Skrulls,” said Shuri. “Dschang forced the Skrulls that survived into a treaty.”

Reed Richards ran his hand over his face and asked, “Why was K’Latyr killed?”

“He had no value as a prisoner,” replied Shuri.

“To be honest if it were not for the Omniverse Avengers bye-laws I would have this operation shut down,” said Reed.

“Why?” asked T’Challa.

“Your actions are too extreme to the point of bloodthirsty,” replied Reed.

“My children’s lives are on the line here,” said Shuri.

“I understand that but you are using the Omniverse Avengers resources in a way that they were not originally intended for,” said Reed.

“Are you saying that we have hijacked the team?” asked T’Challa.

“That’s what it looks like to me and you are hiding behind the bye-laws,” replied Reed. “This is a dispute between two nations that ought to be fixed through other means.”

“Actually Reed it is your association with the Mercer, Carnegie and Ford foundations that got Wakanda and by extension the Omniverse Avengers into this problem,” said T’Challa.

“What does my Future Foundation partners have to do with this discussion ?” asked Reed.

“You wanted tangibles on Dschang in order to vote for me in the next sitting of the directors well I am bringing tangible evidence on how the Omniverse Avengers was compromised from the very start through you,” replied T’Challa.

Reed excused himself from the room.

“That was harsh,” said Shuri.

“It pained me to say those words to him. Big science is his specialty not the swamp that is big politics that he is being lured into,” said T’Challa.

“Is this how you thought the Omniverse Avengers would turn out?”

“I did not expect the first real mission to be so close to all of us,” replied T’Challa.

“Have you spoken to Ororo about this?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“No. I want her to vote with a clear conscience.”

“Speaking of conscience, Reed has caused deaths before so I don’t understand his aversion to our methods,” said Shuri.

“Those deaths occurred when Reed joined teams outside of the Fantastic Four and my guess is that he did not want to repeat that with the Omniverse Avengers,” said T’Challa.

He looked at the inter dimensional surveillance system that Reed built called the Mirror. It showed both the home of the gods on Mars and Saturn. He had to devise a plan to get rid of the two allies of Dschang in a short period of time. Wakanda had dealt with Skrulls and gods before so T’Challa drew on his experiences and an idea came to him.

CHAPTER TWO

MARS

The Hum was a phenomenon that affected small towns on Earth and it caused insanity in the few people who actually heard it. T’Challa and Shuri created devices that modified a sound similar to the Hum and used sand-devil tornadoes as cover to leave the devices near the home of the gods.

The gods’ home was twice the size of Wakanda and was in the northern region Mars where comets seldom fell. Crystal pyramids conducted electricity and transmitted it wirelessly to the interconnected domes that housed the gods. The domes were tall like skyscrapers and covered city size areas.

The speedster Shuri ran into one of the domes; she passed Horus in a flash and left hard light holograms of Ra and Set to fight him. She went through the interconnected tunnels and duplicated what she did to Horus on the real Set and Ra.

Then Shuri searched for their mother Neith. The goddess was in a weaving hall when Shuri tried to ambush her; Neith knocked down the Wakandan without looking at her but Shuri’s metallic skin saved her from the full impact of the blow.

“What mischief are you up to?” asked Neith as she rose from the thread spinner.

Shuri cat sprang to her feet and moved away from the strange deer like creature made of copper thread that came out of the spinner. The other thread-made animals in the hall looked at her.

Neith wore a red pharaoh crown; she was slender and decorated in precious metals.

“This is your last chance to change your mind about my children,” said Shuri.

“My word is my bond. I cannot renege on my promise to kill one of your children as compensation,” said Neith.

“I am sorry but I have no choice but to kill you. T’Challa she is in place,” said Shuri.

The Black Panther crashed through the ceiling above Neith in his Sith Lord -Buster Armor. The reverse anti gravity field around the armor pushed Neith through the floor and into the chamber below.

Shuri ran down to Neith and attempted to put mini anti matter bombs on her but the goddess caught her hands.

“It was Odin’s father Bor who fought me to a standstill before I came to these worlds so what chance do you really have against me. I hear my children in battle with themselves and the maddening hum that no doubt came from you. That may work on lesser gods but not on me,” said Neith and she flung Shuri through the walls and into the plaza.

Shuri wiped the debris from her eyes; she took out the Spear of Bashenga from the holster on her back and waited for Neith. The wrist band that allowed her to breath freely on Mars sparked but she judged that it would continue to work for a while.

The goddess flew above her with T’Challa close behind. With a speed faster than Shuri’s the goddess generated a golden bow and struck T’Challa point blank with an arrow of plasma that penetrated the armor’s side. Yet he grappled her: he tightly locked his arm around her neck, pinned her free hand between their bodies and locked a leg around her right leg. Then he pulled her down to the plaza surface and kept her in that submission hold. Neith turned the bow into a sword and rapidly drove it into the armor several times.

Shuri stabbed the goddess in the arm and then through the head with the spear. Neith yelled and her movements ceased.

“T’Challa?” asked Shuri.

“I am fine,” replied T’Challa.

He released the goddess and the armor broke apart due to the strain from the hold. He came out of the armor and he bled from places where the sword edge had struck him even though he wore his vibranium Black Panther uniform.

Neith’s accelerated regeneration started on the head wound while the siblings turned on image inducers that turned them into Super Skrulls. Shuri remotely turned off the hard light projections and the Hum devices.

“Neith’s children should sense us soon,” said T’Challa.

Suddenly Franklin Richards appeared out of a portal.

“What madness is this?” asked the man.

CHAPTER THREE

T’Challa told Franklin to leave but he refused.

“You will have one species commit genocide against another. What kind of a plan is that? I will not allow it,” said Franklin.

“Did you speak to your father before coming here?” asked T’Challa.

Franklin’s travels into the future and the Omniverse had aged him to the point that he was physically older than T’Challa but still immature in certain aspects of life. T’Challa took that into consideration as he tried to diffuse the conflict.

“It is a stupid plan and I told father the same thing. You will bring the Omniverse Avengers into disrepute,” replied Franklin.

“We cannot warp reality at will like you can so we have to make tough decisions,” said T’Challa.

“I said no.”

“Shuri take Neith to the magnus-arachnids tunnels as planned,” said T’Challa.

“Stop,” said Franklin and he pointed a finger at Shuri.

T’Challa unlocked an exotic gravity well from the palm of his hand that was similar to the one on the armor. The gravity well pulled Franklin’s telekinesis hold away from Shuri.

“You misinterpreted our plan because it is not Skrulls that we are hitting with the gods but the billions of mindless magnus-arachnids that plague the Skrulls. With the gods gone then Dschang will not have the leverage over the Skrulls,” said T’Challa.

“And if the gods decimate the planet any how?” asked Franklin.

“That will not happen,” said T’Challa.

“You don’t know that,” said Franklin.

“Trust me like you did with your life as a child.”

“Which was a very long time ago T’Challa,” said Franklin and then he vanished.

Neith’s children came right after and T’Challa made the teleportation jump to Saturn with Shuri and Neith.

The siblings placed Neith in one of the hives of the magnus-arachnids and the beasts ravaged the goddess which taxed her regeneration ability.

Her children teleported to the scene and they were overwhelmed by the horde.

With the gods occupied, the siblings went to Dschang’s Earth to take down his last level of protection- M’Koni the Black Panther.

NEXT STORY: TANGIBLES

~ by blackpantherfanstories on April 18, 2019.